REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- The absorption of village funds till mid May has been hampered by the slow issuance of regulations by district heads of a number of regions on its disbursement, according to a minister.

"Of the Rp20 trillion allocated as village funds, only some Rp2 trillion has been disbursed. The constraint is that many districts have yet to issue district heads' regulations that are needed to disburse the funds," Chief Economic Minister Sofyan Djalil said here on Tuesday.

The district heads' regulations are needed as guidelines for the use of the funds, he explained.

With regard to the slow disbursement of the village funds, President Joko Widodo has instructed that the distribution of the village funds be expedited. He has encouraged regional government heads to supervise the disbursement of the funds.

"The president has instructed district heads to issue regulations soon so that the absorption of the village funds is expedited," Djalil stated.

However, he added, despite the slow absorption of the village funds, efforts to accelerate the country's budget absorption have already led to higher budget realization now as compared to that in the same period last year. This is particularly due to absorption by ministries or institutions directly related to development.

"This means they have been pushing ahead as realization higher than that in the same period last year has been seen. We hope this upward trend continues because some parties have begun to pay down payments, implementation money, term payments and final phase payments," the minister remarked.

Earlier, while visiting Gorontalo, Finance Minister Bambang Brodjonegoro said the village funds for the province could not be distributed yet due to the absence of district head regulations, even though the deadline for the disbursement had passed.

He pointed out that in Indonesia, only 185 districts had issued the required regulations, which was why the central government had, so far, disbursed only Rp3.3 trillion of the total village funds of Rp20.7 trillion for 434 districts.

The village funds have to be distributed in three phases---40 percent in the second week of April, 40 percent in the second week of August, and 20 percent in the second week at the latest of October.

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